


Look, John, Just Play Along

by Zaniida



Series: Engaging the Fandom (POI) [6]
Category: Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: Birthday, Calm Before The Storm, Gaming, Gen, Relaxation, Season 3, challenge, elbows-friendly, like John could ever relax
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-15
Updated: 2018-08-15
Packaged: 2019-06-27 18:20:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15690810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zaniida/pseuds/Zaniida
Summary: "Does it look like I play video games, Leon?"Well, for my birthday, you sure will!  (Challenge Deadline: August 31st)





	Look, John, Just Play Along

**Author's Note:**

> Last year, my [birthday request](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11827620) to help out a desperate Finch was met by five people: [Lisagarland](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11877282) (where John is practically speechless), [Tipsylex](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11889846) (where John talks about his own past), [oddgit](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11956173) (where they talk about Harold's past), [merionees](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11954493) (where Harold fails to use a gun properly; also with fan art!), and [MulaSaWala](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11974902) (who couldn't bring herself to let the challenge happen as specified, and found an inventive way to keep Harold out of Root's clutches).
> 
> This year, again, I offer you two weeks to craft a present for me to open on my birthday, August 31st. And the prompt this time is far less dramatic: Just **make John play games**. Video games, ideally, but other types of games count as well: board games, card games, word games, improv / parlor games, [hopscotch](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/HopscotchJohn) if you like. (Just not games played with a normal deck of playing cards. He's certainly familiar with _those_.)
> 
> Bonus points if you pull in unusual characters: Leon Tao (to whom John said the key line: " _Does it look like I play video games, Leon?_ "), Caleb Phipps, Will Ingram, Daniel Casey, one of the kids (Genrika, Lee Fusco, Taylor Carter, Darren McGrady, Theresa Whitaker), etc.
> 
> So here's my take on it. I doubt I'll ever go further with this prompt myself, but I figure the setup's interesting enough on its own =^.^=

“You know, when I set this place up for you,” Carter said, cautiously taking a seat at the table, “I didn’t expect you to engage in massive security risks.” Her eyes flicked over at Tao, who was stuffing his mouth with Cheetos, looking energetically innocent.

“Well, you see, Leon and I have a little… arrangement,” Elias said with a grin, folding his hands over the table. “Which is contingent on his ability to respect the need for discretion regarding the night’s activities. I expect he could learn a lot from Ms. Morgan.”

“I guess I’m not surprised that you know Zoe,” Carter admitted. Zoe had already toed off her high heels and was relaxing with a glass of something bubbly.

“Oh, she’s been quite helpful on a number of occasions,” he said, and then, a little louder, “Won’t you sit down, John? There’s no dangers here tonight, and Anthony’s keeping watch in case anything shows up to trouble us.”

John remained standing by Finch, keeping the door in his sight.

After a moment, Elias sighed good-naturedly. “Suit yourself.”

As Shaw returned to the table, her plate piled high with snacks, Carter’s gaze settled on the one person she wasn’t familiar with: a slim young man with wide eyes and a scruffy goatee. Going strictly by her gut, she observed, “You aren’t one of Elias’s men.”

An engaging smile lit up his face. “I’m Will. And no, although it’s been quite exciting to get to know him. I’ve been in jail a few times, but that’s about the extent of it.”

Picking up on Finch’s tension, Carter raised a brow.

“Young Will, here,” Elias said fondly, “has been poking into things that have begun to poke back. So, for the moment, he’s under my protection. As a favor to his dear Uncle Harold.”

“ _Uncle Harold_ ,” Carter echoed, clipped. Finch winced, and Carter wondered if maybe she should’ve kept her curiosity to herself.

“Why are we even here?” John broke in, petulantly.

Elias leaned forward, eyes bright. “There’s a storm brewing, John. Before long, we’re all going to be caught up in it. I can’t say how many of us are going to live to see the other side. So, tonight, my last night in the enviable security of this safe house, I offer you a rare chance to unwind. An evening in good company, with fine refreshments, most of them made by hand. And, if you’ll indulge me, I’ve planned out an activity we can all partake in, with the specific goal of getting our minds off the normal set of worries for a few hours. I dare say most of us could use the distraction.”

Sighing, Carter gave in, and bent to remove her own shoes. “I guess it’s safe enough.”

“I’m not so convinced,” John countered.

Elias looked untroubled. “It’s been several months, and no one seems to have tracked me down. Each of you came by a different route, at a different time, and Anthony was on the lookout for anyone following you. He’s watching the door now, and the feeds from a few cameras strategically placed around the neighborhood. Nothing’s going to take us off guard -- and we’ve got a good exit strategy, so we can be out of here within minutes if need be.

“The Faraday shield keeps signals from getting out, so nobody here is going to call in trouble. Besides, there’s no one at this table who would benefit more from causing a ruckus than from solidifying some social ties. I can’t see what more I could do.”

When John didn’t budge, Zoe huffed. “Oh, sit down, John. It’s nice to have a day off now and then. Stop treating this like a job.”

“Look,” Shaw said through a mouthful, then took a big sip from her glass and stopped to swallow before she went on. “There’s enough fighters and guns in the room that we should be fine against any normal attacks.” She started ticking off points on her fingers. “We’ve got early warning, decent cover, we could hold out against a siege if need be, and we’ve got one of New York’s finest at the table in case the cops start causing problems.

“Our annoying little _guest_ ,” she continued, making Carter wonder about that one, “is well and truly trussed up, and roughly a third of the most dangerous people in the city are collectively in this room. Now, I don’t much care if you spend the whole night glaring at us, but you can’t be at your best in the field if you never get the chance to unwind, and this, tonight, seems like a prime opportunity to kick back and appreciate a truly astounding variety of food.” Glancing at Elias, she shrugged. “I’m really just in it for the food.”

Motioning expansively toward the spread on the side table, Elias grinned again. “Do feel free to help yourself. I’m sure there’ll be plenty left over.” (Shaw had gotten up to refill her plate before he’d stopped speaking.)

“Really, John,” Elias continued, “if I were up to some nefarious plot, don’t you think I’d have taken into account your reluctance to trust my good nature? Even Harold’s getting something to eat. It would be exceedingly difficult to arrange for poison or sedation in sufficient quantities to get all of you without knowing what sort of things you would like to eat, and how much.”

“You could’ve coated the plates,” John countered. “Or the cups.”

“Or I could have some substances wafting through the air right now, that Anthony and I were immune to because of a counter-agent we took earlier. Really, John, the paranoia is just paranoia at this point. I swear, on Anthony’s life, that I have no ill intentions toward any of you tonight; I’m not trying to harm or capture you, or to put you off guard, or to keep you here so my agents can do things elsewhere in peace.”

John’s head jerked up at that one -- evidently a possibility he hadn’t yet considered. His eyes went a little wider, breath coming a little faster; he was on alert, not just about threats within the room but possible threats outside it. Carter was starting to feel sorry for him, unable to relax even in a setup like this.

Returning from the buffet, Finch set his plate and glass on the table, and turned to John. “Mr. Reese,” he said, “if Elias were trying to distract us, I doubt he’d take the added risk of bringing in Ms. Morgan and Mr. Tao. And, given our relationship over the past few months, I find it unlikely that he means us ill tonight. It’s always possible that this is more than what it seems, but… at least for tonight, I am willing to trust his hospitality.”

John’s answering snort spoke volumes, but Finch simply shrugged, sat down, and attended to his meal.

 

Twenty minutes later, with everyone (except John) happily munching away, Will began handing out papers, pencils, and pens… plus sets of weirdly shaped dice. Most of the guests looked either confused or curious; Zoe looked interested, and Leon delighted.

“I’ve chosen a system that’s fairly easy to get into,” Elias said. “Even for those of you who’ve never played a tabletop before.”

John blinked a bit, as if trying to make sense of those words.

“We’re going to be role-playing?” Finch asked, frowning, as he lifted his papers and leafed through them.

“When the goal is to distract the mind from its current troubles, that takes a little bit of mental effort. A game such as _Pathfinder_ is going to take enough concentration, from each of you, to accomplish the goal. So that is what I have chosen. And it all starts with character creation: Basic classes, basic races, core rulebook, nothing fancy. Let’s begin.”

* * *

Before long, they’d paired off: one person who was at least quasi-familiar with the task, and one newbie. Elias had evidently coached Will in the basics, so Will was helping Carter while Tao tried to coach Shaw (not that she was letting him), and Finch sought Elias’s help in making the mental shift from some previous gaming system.

It took some persuasion -- mostly from Zoe -- to get John to accept the idea of creating a character to play some sort of paper-based video game. He couldn’t even recall the last time he’d picked up a board game, or any sort of card game that wasn’t played with a normal deck, and this seemed weirder than either one, even before you factored in eight-sided dice.

“There’s a lot of possibilities,” Zoe was saying, “so you need to narrow it down a bit. First off, do you want to play something that’s similar to what you do in your normal life, or would you like to lose yourself in the sort of things you can’t normally do?”

After a bit of discussion, that much got settled: John was already overloaded, so they stuck to what he knew. A human fighter who threw himself between danger and his friends.

“A tank,” Zoe explained, “is the guy who takes damage so the rest of the team can survive. Sound like you?”

John sighed, and, at Zoe’s instruction, rolled some dice to figure out just how strong, fast, and resilient he was. The numbers meant nothing to him, but Zoe seemed impressed.

 

The terminology was slowly starting to fall into place, some obvious and some… not so much. “Alignment” meant morality, or ethics (he’d never grasped the distinction), which fell along two axes: Good vs. Evil, and Lawful vs. Chaotic. Shaw, in particular, wanted to stick to Chaotic Neutral, and got annoyed when her first pick of “Monk” required an alignment of Lawful; she grumbled and went with a Barbarian instead. Most of the group seemed to favor Neutral Good.

Other than human, the races were classic fantasy types that John had only a passing familiarity with: elf, dwarf, gnome, another small creature called a “halfling” (which Finch picked), and two half-human types: half-elf and half-orc. “Orc” was apparently a monster type; Leon went for half-orc after trying to wheedle his way into some sort of angel, or “at least” a monkey-person. (“No supplements,” Elias said firmly. “We’ve only got a few hours.”)

Then there were classes. John’s “Fighter” was easy enough to grasp -- all the weapon types, good with armor, had a few combat tricks and all. Apparently “wizard” and “sorcerer” were the types with magic powers; Zoe went for a Half-Elf Sorcerer.

“I’ll be the face,” she told John, “which means that when we encounter other characters, I’m the one who talks with them and tries to persuade them to help us. Unless someone else can beat a 19 Charisma and the ability to _Charm Person_.”

Carter decided on an Elf Ranger. When Elias raised an eyebrow and remarked that he’d half expected her to choose a Paladin, she sniped back, “Hey, we’re doing this to _relax_.”

When Finch chose a Rogue, Will sighed and went with Cleric. “ _Somebody_ ’s gotta keep the group alive.” This didn’t make sense until Will and Elias started discussing spells; apparently Clerics had healing magic, and being a Dwarf meant he could resist poison better than most races.

Even traveling storytellers had powers: As a Bard, Leon could affect the whole group by _singing_ , which somehow made them more effective in combat.

A whole hour had come and gone, and they weren’t even ready to get started. John was starting to wonder if this _was_ the game, just spending all night making characters and comparing numbers. And he was starting to get a headache just trying to figure out which details to keep track of.

“Don’t worry so much,” Zoe soothed. “Just focus on your fighter, and the rest of it will fall into place as we play.” She grabbed one of the core rulebooks (Elias had provided three), flipped through some pages, and laid it out in front of him. “Here, pick out some weapons.”

John rubbed his face and started reading through a chart of numbers and notations as obscure as any tax code. Except, he was starting to wrap his head around the dice codes, at least. Dice meant damage, and 1d6 meant one die with six sides. Bigger numbers were better, and 2d6 was better than 1d12 because you could never roll lower than a two, and because the damage was more consistent. _Melee_ meant hand-to-hand combat, and he could use martial weapons because fighters were trained. Okay. Some of this was coming together.

The biggest damage code for one-handed melee weapons was 1d8; John turned the eight-sided die over in his fingers, and then checked the two-handed melee weapons, which went up to 1d12 for the Greataxe -- no, 2d6 for the Greatsword, which wasn’t as heavy but cost 50 gold instead of just 20. That was fine; he had rolled 230 gold earlier, for starting cash.

He couldn’t make sense of the other code -- 19-20/x2 -- but at least it was different from most of the rest of the column, so maybe it was better? Okay, weapon chosen.

As he was hunting through the armor chart, Zoe returned and glanced at his sheet. “Nice choice,” she said. “Though you can’t get a breastplate now. Chainmail’s almost as good; it’ll just slow you down a bit. You need all the protection you can get, but you still want a little maneuverability.”

John groaned. “How did you even get started with this nonsense?”

She grinned. “Oh, you pick up all sorts of things when you spend time at odd gatherings with the most influential people in the city. I can also swear in Klingon.”

“What’s Klingon?”

Laughing, she pressed a kiss to his cheek. “We are gonna have to set you up with some movie nights or something, my culturally under-educated friend. That, or jump straight into the deep end by taking you to a few conventions.”

* * *

Eventually, everyone had the basics written down, and then they were all looking to Elias, who’d set up a little cardboard screen at the end of the table, keeping his own paperwork private.

“Well,” he said, “I know that half of you are new to this, and it does feel like a missed opportunity not to resort to the classic _you all meet in a tavern_ , but I thought I’d be a little more creative with this adventure.” A grin spread across his face, and he took in a deep breath.

 _You’re in a caravan, stopped on a snowy mountain pass. It’s afternoon, and you’re just setting out lunch when_ \--

**Author's Note:**

> I do have [other](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Zaniida/collections) [challenges](https://archiveofourown.org/series/908421), in case this one doesn't appeal.
> 
> If you're still hoping to vote on [which of my fics](https://archiveofourown.org/series/1098849) I should focus on, well, my birthday is also the first deadline for my [July prompt](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15123281); if you submit the fill by that time, your votes count double. (If you just want single votes, the deadline's Halloween.)
> 
> My **"bread and butter" scenario** always counts for a birthday fill: Someone is trying to capture Harold, Harold tries futilely to get away, they manage to catch him and kidnap him (possibly knocking him out, and I like _slow_ knockouts, the feeling of inevitability as you realize that you're about to lose consciousness, not being able to do anything about it but maybe struggle a bit), and then there's some ordeals while in captivity before Harold gets rescued or escapes. Pain and horror okay, extreme drama is awesome, but no gore and no permanent damage.
> 
> The whole key is **tension and release** , ideally in multiple waves: tension of suspense; tension of being captured, release as you're forced to relax into the capture; tension of being held captive, of being hurt or interrogated or emotionally distraught, release when the captor leaves you alone for a bit; tension of trying to escape (whether futile or not), final release when you're rescued or set free or manage to make your own escape. That sort of thing.
> 
> And I'm branching out to other fandoms! I'll be watching _Lost_ soon, so that same "bread and butter" scenario could be applied to **Ben Linus**. I started watching _White Collar_ a bit, and would be happy seeing it for **Neal Caffrey**. **Eliot Spencer** from _Leverage_ , **Spencer Reid** (or Hotch or Morgan or Garcia) from _Criminal Minds_ , **Charlie Eppes** from _NUMB3RS_ , **Spike** (or Oz) from _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_.
> 
> If you'd prefer an anime scenario, **Xellos** from _Slayers_ would be fun. Just find a way to make him helpless and hurting (gore is more acceptable for Xellos, since he can heal) ^.^ I would also accept Zelgadis or Gourry.
> 
> Also note that supernatural captivity/force/domination is fun: mind control, body-swapping, transformations, etc. Feel free to weave in such elements if you like.
> 
> Anyway, that's my birthday request! Hope I get a lot of variations =^.^=

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Butterscotch Hopscotch](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15796296) by [PreachingtotheQuire](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PreachingtotheQuire/pseuds/PreachingtotheQuire)




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